


War Never Changes

by GooseWhiskers



Series: Hey Look, Blue Soup! [1]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Blood and Gore, Canon Dialogue, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Gen, Gun Violence, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sad Ending, Whump without comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-11-24 15:57:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20910269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GooseWhiskers/pseuds/GooseWhiskers
Summary: Nate survives the apocalypse above ground, only to suffer a fate worse than death in the Vault below. What tragedy unfolds will alter the course of his life forever.War never changes, and it never lets you go, either.It's always a bit of a challenge putting a fresh spin on a canon scene, but coloring the prologue through Nate's perception was a bit of a gut-punch for me. This hurt to write Dx





	War Never Changes

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [Tarberrymentats](https://tarberrymentats.tumblr.com) for beta-reading!

The blinding bright of the decontamination chamber hurt. Nate blinked, but it felt sluggish, and his muscles were slow to respond as if asleep. He knew enough to realize most decontamination chambers didn’t leave you _ numb_. 

Nate’s frantic breathing stilled as he struggled to focus on his surroundings. Fresh horrors from the surface ripe in his mind, fear that he had made a mistake trusting the warm smiles and confident gestures of the Vault-Tec scientists flooded Nate’s dull senses. They were no longer standing within view. It was dark. Or maybe his eyes were still sore from the flash of - of whatever had happened. He felt a little like he might throw up.

_ Decontamination my ass. _

Being lied to by white suits wasn’t a new sensation. But he’d hoped to leave it behind at the end of his military career. In a place like this, other’s safeties were at stake. He could see Nora, vaguely, across the hall. Still in her own pod. She wasn’t moving.

A stranger in a cleanroom suit crept up to the console beside Nate’s wife and son, pointing as they spoke to someone else still out of sight. “This is the one.”

They weren’t dressed like Vault-Tec. 

Something was wrong. Something hadn’t gone the way it should. 

Another figure strode into view. Bald, attired like a civilian except - grungy. Metal padding on his arm. And the glint of a .44 Magnum revolver in his gloved hand. 

Nate recognized the bearing of someone comfortable with killing. _ Dangerous. _ His heart sped up. He tried to move. But even as his thoughts became clearer, motor control proved fanciful at best. He was _ cold_. So very, very cold. 

“Open it.” The bald one ordered.

Neither of these people had been in the hall earlier, when survivors from Sanctuary Hills milled in like frightened sheep. The lights were _definitely _out, too. Emergency power lit the floor, and the pods, but nothing else. Nate’s boggled sense of time was proving an impediment.

Heavy latches unfastened and the whir of machinery beat against his sore ears like banging sheet metal. The door lifted open, hissing out air. Only then did Nora squirm inside her chamber. The Love of his Life curled inward around Shaun, raking coughs splintering out as their son cried in discomfort. 

Nate’s breath came back to him in a rush. Suddenly he couldn’t get enough air. 

“Is it over?” Nora puled, looking up as the one in a cleanroom suit moved forward and reached out. “Are we okay?”

“Almost,” the dangerous one answered. 

Nate heard no comfort in the assurance. Nora must not have either, because she looked between the two strangers and stiffened. Dread pooled in his gut. 

“Everything’s going to be fine.” They pressed.

Did she see his gun? Did she know they were being threatened? 

“Co-ome here-” Coaxed the Suit. At first Nate thought they were going to help Nora out of her pod. A very faint spark of hope that he was being paranoid, and this was strange, but maybe not deadly, lit his chest. 

Hope died in an instant as the Suit made a grab for Shaun. Nate’s _ baby_. The most precious thing in his and Nora’s life together. Strangers were trying to take him.

“No.” Nora protested, pitching back, lip curling into a snarl as her baby wailed. 

The Suit didn’t stop. They grabbed hold of Shaun’s blanket, tugging at the swaddled infant as Nora fought to keep him in her arms. “No- no- _ I’ve got him,_” she insisted, drug halfway to her feet by the struggle. Her teeth bared with confusion and surprise.

_ Please. _ Nate prayed, railing bitterly against his own helplessness in his tiny metal box. _ Please- _

_"Let the boy go. _ I’m only gonna tell you once.” Menaced the dangerous one. Their gun was in the air. Nate saw the stance. Realized there would be no hesitation. Could do nothing, even his tongue unresponsive.

Fear colored Nora’s eyes. Then anger. The irredeemable fury of a mother with nothing at all left in the world except her child. _ “I’m not giving you Shaun!” _She hissed, writhing like a venomous serpent poised to strike.

An apocalyptic blast of light and smoke sprang loose.

Nora’s face shattered. Blood and bone chucked across the room in every direction like Independence Day confetti. Nate could hear the sound of her skull breaking through the confines of his chamber, through the ringing of the gunshot, through the swearing of her murderer. Pieces of her were everywhere. Shaun _ screamed_. 

Nate’s mind went blank. Every ounce of who he was and who he could be disappeared into a void that had no color, sound, or sensation. 

The Suit shut the pod door hastily and fled, locking Nora’s bleeding corpse behind cold steel. Shaun’s wailing echoed through the chamber, out of reach and fading fast.

But not the other one. _ The murderer. _ They sauntered into the light, peered through the glass at Nate - who finally managed a roar through tattered breaths. He wondered if they planned to shoot him, too. If they opened the latch, could Nate reclaim control of himself fast enough to do the killing, first. 

The Murderer leaned forward, meeting Nate’s stare with a curious, predatory sort of intelligence. No remorse shone beneath. Only inhumane glee. “At least we still have the backup…” 

Then Nate was alone, staring across the hall at the ruin of what had once been the most beautiful face he’d ever seen. Its horror seared into his mind, burning a hole straight through. Still he could do nothing. Left behind, suffocating, as a computerized voice echoed, “cryogenic sequence re-initialized,” and the world turned white and frozen.


End file.
